Letter: Politics is a rich person’s game

Published: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 5:30 a.m. CDT

To the Editor:

It seems to be that time again when candidate signs sprout out of the ground and we head to the polls to elect our representatives at the county, state and federal level. And none of the signs give me more unease than the ones with the name Jim Oberweis. I am familiar with him not only because of his successful dairy company, but his numerous and failed runs for the Illinois Senate in the past 10 years. However, what troubles me about Mr. Oberweis is that he represents the state of American politics we have today, where the vast majority of men and women who run for public office come from extremely wealthy backgrounds. They are either successful and rich businesspersons or lawyers. Members of our Senate and House of Representatives that come from – or worked their way up from – true, blue-collar, working-class backgrounds are few and far between.

I am terribly afraid we will eventually reach a point where we are completely and totally governed by the rich. We won’t have anyone lobbying or defending the rights of the middle/working class, but these rich politicians will instead conflate the needs and desires of corporations with the interests of our country. The big difference between civil servants and private-sector workers is that one is loyal to the greater good, the collective whole of the nation, and the other is loyal only to shareholders.

It is my hope and wish that one day I will see a Congress filled with the diversity that makes our country great – not only having politicians of different race, faith, sexuality and an even representation of men and women, but more importantly having electable, working-class candidates for public office. Our politicians are supposed to be representatives of our great nation’s citizens and they are supposed to lead a government for the people and by the people; how can this be when all of our politicians are part of the 1 percent? Do those people really represent me?